Daniel Briggs – Another Teen Suicide Story.

This is Daniel Briggs. He loved to be outside. He loved to help his neighbors. He was happy in many ways, looking forward to college. He also killed himself.

He apparently shot himself last Monday after being bullied.

According to his mother, Amy Briggs, Daniel was picked on by a small group of students for years. His parents did the right thing. According to a news report, they went to school officials “50 or 60″ times about the bullying that had occurred over a 9 year period. And whatever actions the school took, it wasn’t enough.

“They might talk to the kid. They might suspend them for a day or so, depending on what had actually taken place. But that just made it worse for Daniel, because then, the taunting, the ‘Oh, run home to mommy, run to the principal,'” said Amy.” Eventually, Daniel stopped talking to adults or people in authority, apparently because it didn’t do anything but make it worse. He must have hid the pain he’d be enduring because it seemed like he was doing ok, according to Richard Fabend , author of the blog HandiHelp. Daniel was his neighbor, and friend. Richard has quadriplegia after an accident, and Daniel would help him out and hang out with him. He has this to say about Daniel.

Daniel lived next door to me. He was 16 years old and a junior at the local high school. He was a teenager filled with ideas, dreams, aspirations and adolescent insecurities. Daniel was also shy, sensitive and caring. He loved the out – of- doors and nature. To his neighbors, he was a very special young man.

Over the last few years we had talked about the taunting, teasing and bullying he was experiencing at school. As a former special education teacher, I shared strategies I had used with my students. This year things seemed to be improving. Daniel was on the honor roll and he seemed more confident and self-assured. What we didn’t realize was after years of attacks, he was being driven into a desperate act to escape. Monday night it all came to a head and he lost HIS struggle.

Who has done this? A few, hiding behind the anonymity of social media, can text and Tweet whatever they wish. Can they not look and see what can happen? Will they not realize the full extent their actions, or are they already looking for another vulnerable target? I have learned that there are enough challenges and pain in life already. Why make it any harder for anyone else?

This boy, this boy who obviously cared a lot for people, was bullied enough that he thought there was no other way out but death. What else was there to do? He’d DONE what he was supposed to do. He’d gone to his parents, his teachers, to those who he thought could help. His parents tried. 50 or 60 complaints, to me, sounds like an awful lot of trying. I don’t know this boy, I don’t know his family. But I know his story. I lived it. I see the face of my own son when I look at the photo of this kid.

I hear the story of my daughter’s torment when she was told “well, we have to SEE it happening to do anything about it” when she went to the school for help. This has to STOP.

There are so many mandates for our school- tests to pass, programs to offer, teachers to observe, but we are failing at one of the most important things – keeping our kids healthy and alive. There should be mandates to address and handle bullying. All too often, a complain is taken, and little or no action is taken. Schools should be required to address bullying, and protecting the bullied. There must be follow up, and recorded action and consequences in an appropriate time frame.

We make it a priority to have our kids learn reading, writing and math according to state guidelines. States should also mandate teaching our students that bullying is unacceptable and not tolerated.

Perhaps there should be testing and ranking on the bullying occurring at schools, and funding tied to that.

I’m quite sure that bullying problems would be more handily addressed then.

My heart goes out to the family of Daniel, Amy and Robbie Briggs,and his brother, Michael. I’m sorry that they have to live the rest of their lives without their boy because a few small minded people who thought that tormenting a person was fun, and they never were forced to stop. I hope, as Amy Briggs hopes, that they are held accountable for their actions.

My daughter, Ally, writes an anti-bullying blog, losergurl.com. If you child is being bullied, please have them check it out. We both are committed to helping other learn to #BeBrave and #BeMoreThanABystander

87 Comments

I’m sitting here with tears in my eyes. I already have enough issues with hating people because of all the bullying I’ve received over the years, but this is a CHILD, and the children who did this to him didn’t just pop out of the womb, horrible people. They learned it, and it was from their parents! This might be my anger speaking, but I think the parents need to be held accountable in situations like this!

These situations must be handled in a full and complete way by ALL adults who are aware that this is happening. That means, actions have to be taken no matter how vast they seem…if it is pulling your child out of school and getting them help, to taking civil and financial action against the parents of children who are bullying. AND let’s please call this what is really is….a CRIME. If someone at WORK punches us…we press charges. Why is this such a difficult concept for schools and parents to get their heads around. Why is it called Assault when we are adults and BULLYING when it is children???

This is terrible, and it makes my heart ache. I feel so bad for these kids being bullied and nothing being done. I came from a high school with a very high suicide rate, and people had even gone through with a suicide pact. When that happened, 11 kids died and our town ended up the joke on certain late night shows…people just making fun of these poor kids and families. It was disgusting. It has to stop.

This is a horrible tragedy that shouldn’t have happened. I agree with everyone else that this needs to stop and now. I think there should be severe punishments given for bullying. It’s obvious that suspensions etc are not enough.

I know the parents did everything they could. The only other thing I can think of is to pull the kid out of school. We live in a world where we have to protect our children. It’s not running away to be smart and start over somewhere else. Adults who suffer job loss, divorce, death of children, etc. have to/want to/do start over all the time. Many don’t stay in the same place to do it. Maybe parents need to be ready to facilitate things for their children that kids can’t possibly do on their own. I am in no way saying Daniel’s parents didn’t do enough. I am aghast, however, that he had to suffer by the same children’s abuse for NINE YEARS.

I ended up pulling BOTH of my children out of school to home school after being bullied. It was after my daughter’s suicide attempt, however. I didn’t KNOW she was being bullied as badly as she was. We did what we had to do to keep them both safe.

I’m sure millions of people feel as devastated as I do when I hear stuff like this. Kids themselves can be so mean. Then of course most of them don’t realize it until it’s too late. I know there are so many programs that schools have for everything else. Anti-bullying should be one of them. This is gotten to be really serious.

This story and every one like it is incredibly sad but I feel that we are placing too much blame and responsibility on the school. Where are the parents? Schools are asked to have an ever expanding role in our children’s lives with an ever shrinking budget and resources.
I completely agree that we have to protect our children and we should stop bullies and I’m not sure what the solution is.

Karen, I agree that most bullying begins at home, but the fact is that most of the bullying happens at school, where kids should be safe! And in this case, the parents went to the schools for help over 50 times. Schools have a responsibility to have a safe place for all children, and follow through on their policies.

Ugh. This stuff sickens me. And as I parent, I am scared to death. My son is only 11 but has starting getting bullied recently. Just small things, but still makes me nervous because kids can be mean and kids are fragile and sensitive.

Devastating. Why are there so many tragedies like this one? My heart goes out to his family, and I hope parents and schools will finally start to realize they need to take responsibility and get the anti-bullying message across.

50-60 times? That is outrageous. This family can never get their son back. NEVER. Yet the bullies get to live full lives, even if they are scarred by what they caused. Yet these parents reported this activity 50-60 times? I am outraged. I am so sick of this national bullying initiative. That is what I am calling it, because it is at an all time high, the acceptance of children being entitled to treat their peers and anyone else poorly. We’ve got to have some cohesive movement about this.

A young boy in my area walked 11 miles in the rain and then stepped out in front of a big rig on the highway. He was bullied for being gay, although I don’t know if he was or not. Doesn’t matter, though. My heart breaks for these kids. They should never be called upon to have the kind of strength it takes to withstand that much bullying. I vow to do everything I can to raise kind children.

This is so sad. I worry for my 4 year old son. He is so trusting, yet very sensitive. I am trying to start early to talk to him when he is home from daycare, about what he did that day, what his friend are like, what they played, etc. I want to make sure that, in the future, there is always an open line of communication, no matter what.

That is horrible! I remember being bullied in the 3rd grade when I moved to a new state halfway through the school year. I was so miserable, that my mom switched me to a different school for 4th grade. And that happened at a Catholic school, where they are supposed to showing people God’s love. How sad is that?? 😛

This is absolutely heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. I was bullied for about 3 years in 5-7th grade and luckily I was able to overcome but there are so many who aren’t that lucky. With the accessibility of social media bullying can spread so much more quickly. My thoughts and prayers go out to this family.

What a sad story Being a teen is hard enough as it is, but having matters escalate to bullying, then gathering the strength to ask for help & not receiving it? 50-60x?! How does the school not assume responsibility for the environment they condone? Ridiculous…something must be done! My heart goes out to Daniel’s family & friends…

I knew this kid. The only thing he ever complained about to me was his parents’ ‘bullying’ per se. He showed me a text document on his iPhone about his parents doing things that got him a criminal record, etc. One such story was his mom sending him to a psychiatric ward for raising his voice to her while he was cutting toast, holding a knife (egads!). As a result, he couldn’t touch a weapon (by law) and therefore couldn’t hunt, one of his favourite activities, or so he said.

On the day of, he was using an internet based texting app that gave you a new number to mess with another kid, calling him fat and more. Things escalated out of control after school, apparently, and he messaged the kid he was messing with ‘I’m about to shoot myself. Just wanted to let you know before I pull the trigger! ;D’.

I suppose my point is that just because there was a school suicide of a kid that had been bullied, doesn’t mean it was because of the bullying. (Though it may well have been.) Just because a kid was getting bullied doesn’t mean he didn’t do any of the same to others (not that I’m saying that is justification for what bullies did to him.)

Interestingly, new information in this surfaced this last week. The principal’s son apparently was part of the action. Was this perhaps why nothing much was done?

I saw the video on facebook just now and it hurt me so much. I am 13 and i was bullied alot in the past. It crushed my confidence. what used to be a bubbly, crazy, energetic girl is now described as “shy” and “boring”. I have found a group of good friends though so everythings good, but the fact that this boy who sounds like a kind thoughtful guy who could really make a difference in this world went into his room and shot himself is incredibly sad. i know some people who used to cut themselves and now i know that even the little things i did made a difference. when your in a dark place even the tiniest rays of sunlight can make you think twice. Please, everyone knows who the bullies are and what i dont get is that even though everyone hates them they still follow them around and laugh a their jokes but most importantly they go with whatever the bully says. This creates a blanket of hatred that smothers you, making you think because 6 or 7 kids agree it means the entire population of the earth agrees. If i was with Daniel before he died i would have told him to ignore the negative because if you have a family that loves you no amount of nasty comments can drag you down. That he was or is an intelligent, thoughtful caring human being and we need so much more of them in this corrupt world. It seems the nasty, ego-tistic people are putting the real gold people away and its working. People like Daniel are so rare these days. and now at the end of this long comment Daniel is dead (R.I.P) and the bullies have got there way. Daniel you will be missed by so many people including me and i don’t even know you. I just know your life has been destroyed by our own kind for entertainment. R.I.P Daniel.

I’m so sorry that happened to you. MY daughter, Ally, was bullied badly, too. She tried to kill herself, too. I found her, and we got help. We both now work really hard to help people #BeBrave and stop bullying. IF you need a friend, please check out my daughter Ally’s blog at losergurl.com, and you can message her on Twitter at loser_gurls. Thank you for commenting.

Bullying is a problem all over the globe. In British Columbia, Canada they have a three strikes policy. If the perpetrator has three incidents of bullying then the parent is responsible for finding another school to attend. The child is given the first two incidents to make changes and the parents are notified after each occurence. The parents are then informed that one more incident will result in expulsion and it will be their responsibility to take their child to another school. My daughter was bullied and came home with a bruise on her face. I contacted the school and felt it wasn’t addressed then I contacted an rcmp officer who was a family friend. The advice given to me was to inform the school that if action was not taken then child protective services would be called because a child was being abused. I did this as well as contact the parents and informed them of what I would do if it continued. It did get better but the damage was already done. We all need to stand up to bullying right across the globe.

The ultimate act of violence against oneself…heart-breaking, terrible deaths of beautiful teenagers as an act of escape. This isn´t an issue of effective policy making or its implementation! This is just the tip of the iceberg, showing us that our societies are sick to the marrow; empty, lacking empathy, lacking compassion, lacking respect for anyone who looks, smells, sounds, or thinks differently, with severe distortions of the definition of “having fun”, concerned only about material gains (call it sports, academics, real estate, the illusion of success or superlatives in any field, etc) leaving spiritual growth out of their priorities. The parents of the bullies are in great deal responsible for such tragedies mainly because a bully is simply the outcome of an angry, ignored child who in picking on others finds the perfect abandonment vent, believing this somewhat strengthens his/her damaged sense of self-worth in front of others…Bullying has become generational because the parents of the bully have not worked on their own issues.

I will say, I agree, a lot. One of my son’s bullies parents are the biggest bullies in town, and they enable the boy to continue bullying. The cycle will never end if parents don’t stand up and be better parents.

Look how many people said “Something should be done!” What will get accomplished by everyone merely making sappy stupid comments on a blog in the middle of cyber space? Seriously…advocate people! Speak up…DO something. How about trying to pass legislation for an anti-bullying class if someone is caught bullying a child? Much like alcoholics are made to go to AA.

I, and my daughter have become anti-bullying advocates. We DO advocate for stronger bullying laws. WE DID write to every. single. governor and government officials to try and make changes. Sometimes, writing a “stupid blog” is a way to reach out and help someone else. Look= you commented! With some good ideas!

I was one of the few who stood up for the bullied. In High School, I hated more than anything seeing other kids get picked on by insecure, immature teenagers trying to impress their friends. I did get in fights at school, but it was always coming to the aid of those being bullied. I was a 6’1″ 225 lb football player and I figured I could use my size for good. I really wish there were more kids in school that would stand up for the bullied kids, since unfortunately the school officials still don’t want to take the issue of bullying seriously. Every bullied child needs someone to stand up for and watch out for them. They also need someone to tell them that they are important, and that they DO matter. Having a child of my own now, I fear what she may have to deal with in school. Since I can’t be there to protect her every second of the day, I make sure to instill in her how to treat people with respect and make sure she understands that she needs to let me know if she EVER encounters a bully. I really hope and pray that one day bullying will be dealt with swiftly so we stop losing so many of our beautiful children.

Its unbelieveable how any kids can do this to an innocent kid. I blame the internet and cellphones for that. If they didnt have access to those this kid would’ve been alive today. Kids today have to much spare time and no respect whatsoever
Remember megan meiers. I don’t wanna read more comments i wanna know how we all can this. We have to do something. Actions speaks louder than words

After I read this, I really feel sorry for Daniel and his family, but what I also want to know is what happened to the bullies? Did they at least learn anything from this if there’s no punishment at all? I’m so sorry to say that this world is not getting any better because it’s full of b**tards and people would say “Don’t blame them. They’re still kids they don’t know anything” but it’s not true. There needs to be some form of punishment or learning programme to rectify this because they are supposed to be our “future”.

I’ve seen the interview of Amy Briggs about her son and what she does is unbelievably brave. I am so thankful that there are people like her, trying to open the eyes of people out there. I know that nobody can take away the pain so many people feel about the loss of Daniel. I never met him but hearing about him and his shining personality makes me wish I would have. He was pure and full of love, wanted to help and do good and all he got from strangers who did not even know him was ugly words and pain – even physical. Nobody should be treated this way! Open your eyes! People do not kill theirselves because they do not like themselves. They kill themselves because they think being dead would be better for everyone, that nobody would miss them or that nobody loves them. All monsters are human and it is tragic to see someone so young taking his own life. He had his whole life to live but he never will. So many great moments with family and friends, moments of success and love, so many experiences that will never happen. A family left behind, full of pain. And why? Only because some young thoughtless people thought being rude would be cool and awesome. It is ridiculous and sad – tragic.

To the Briggs-family and especially to Amy: You are so brave. I wish I would have known Daniel. I also wish I could be there for you all. It is not your fault that you missed the call. Please do not blame it on you. He knows that you would have helped him. And maybe that is why he did not want you to know. Because he loves you and he did not want you to see him that broken and hurt. I know how hard it must be, talking about Daniel and his sad story but you are so brave. It takes a lot of courage to sit there in front of a camera, in front of the whole world and open peoples eyes while trying not to break down. YOU ARE SO BRAVE. You may could not help Daniel but you sure could already and still can help a lot of people out there who can relate to Daniels situation.

I am honestly sorry for your loss and I hope that time will make it at least endurable. I respect you and your work as much as I respect Daniel. I wish you and your family the best, Amy. I hope it is nice where he is now and I need you to know that the sun will shine again. And when it does, it will hopefully remind you of Daniel and his smile and his shining personality. You have been great parents and you still are. Thank you for everything and again, I am so unbelievingly sorry for your loss.

I sincerely hope these bullies feel bad for what they did for the rest of their lives. Maybe they will learn to be better people, at the hands of the death of someone really special. Or maybe they are just bad people and deserve to feel miserable for “killing” someone good.

This scares the crap out of me. As the mother of a daughter I cannot imagine her pain. I just cannot believe the bully’s parents, schools and administration are not being held accountable for this. This has to stop. Over my dead body I’d allow my kid to become a bully… but also…it scares the heck out of me if they are in the other end.

I would do home schooling or send him to another school. But even if the child won’t go to the same school again, I would ask the child who was bullying him so I talk to those parents and set restraining order against those kids. I would also teach the child to defend himself, even if it means with violence. Bullies know who to target (the weak ones) and if the child doesn’t respond back, they will continue. A boy tried to bully my daughter and her first reaction was to slap him. I don’t agree with violence but I can say that after that, she was never bothered again!! You can have a noble spirit, but you also need to set boundaries and people need to know it. It all starts with one person, and if you allow that one person tease you, then next day would be 2 people and very soon a group of people. I’m proud how my daughter handled it because she was courageous and she knew she had to do something about it.